1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to outdoor goods and, more particularly, to outdoor sunscreens for screening people and goods from the sun and providing the shade in the open air.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a picnic at a sunny location glaring sunlight should be screened to protect excursionists from the sun. To that end, a tent or sunscreen is conventionally used. When it is required to accommodate many people in the shade, the sunscreen is more profitable since it provides a larger shaded area than the conventional tent.
Such a sunscreen may be also used for covering a large amount of goods for preservation of same in the open air. The sunscreen along with the goods covered thereby is tightened by ropes, to maintain the goods for a long time period and achieve desired safety in preservation of the goods.
When pitching the sunscreen in a plurality of ropes are tightened using pegs to erect poles. The ropes cooperate with the poles in order to retain the balance of the sunscreen. The tops of the standing poles are inserted in corresponding holes of the sunscreen.
With reference to FIG. 4, there is shown a corner section of a conventional sunscreen. In order to produce the sunscreen, the edge of a sunscreen sheet 1, (formed of a woven fabric produced by weaving wefts and warps), is folded with a reinforcing band 2 received in a bulging portion of the folded edge. Thereafter, the sheet 1 is sewn at the inside edge and at the outside edge of the folded portion, thus to form a reinforced margin 3. The sheet 1 is in turn punched at the corners and at regularly spaced points along the reinforced margin 3. In order to reinforce the punched holes, all of the punched holes are fitted with eyelets 5 having their openings 4. The fitting of the eyelets 5 in the punched holes is conventionally achieved by rivetting. The eyelets 5 also rivet the folded sheets of the reinforced margin 3 together. As described above, the production process of the conventional sunscreen comprises several steps, that is, edge folding, sewing, punching and eyelet rivetting. The productivity of the sunscreens is thus deteriorated. The location of the eyelets 5 is impossible to be changed since the eyelets 5 are fitted on predetermined points of the sheet 1 by rivetting during the production process of the sunscreen. This often causes the sunscreen to lose its balance when the sunscreen needs pitching on uneven ground.
The folded and sewed portion of the fabric sheet 1 forms the reinforced margin 3, so that the sheet 1, particularly the margin 3 may be damaged or deformed at about the eyelets 5 due to a possible increase of tensile force of the ropes caused by a change of temperature and/or a change of weather. This makes the sunscreen short-lived. With the plurality of eyelets 5 tightly fitted on the sheet 1 by rivetting, the sunscreen having served its time can not be subjected to reproduction unless all the eyelets are removed from the sheet 1 requiring burdensome manual labor.
Partially cutting of the margin 3 about the eyelets 5 and discarding of the cutout parts for reproduction of the sunscreen causes environmental pollution. The sunscreen is conventionally folded several times to be compact when it is carried along with an excursionist. However, when folding the sunscreen several times, the eyelets 5 are apt to be broken by an outside force and this makes the sunscreen short-lived.
That is, long use of the sunscreen causes the reinforced margin 3 of the sheet 1 to be partially damaged proximate the eyelets 5. In this case, the margin 3 should be partially cut off in order to remove the troubled eyelets 5 and, thereafter, the remaining sheet 1 having no eyelet 5 is subjected to new sewing, new punching and new eyelet rivetting for reuse of the remaining sheet 1. However, an environmental pollution is caused by the cutout parts including the troubled eyelets 5. The sunscreen with the eyelets 5 can not be subjected to the reproduction process since a problem is caused by the eyelets 5 in forming of a new sheet after melting of the sunscreen. When folding a conventional sunscreen, particularly a large-sized sunscreen, several time for carrying it, the eyelets 5 are arranged in a line and this undesirably enlarges the volume of the folded sunscreen such that it is very difficult to treat the folded sunscreen. In addition, the eyelets 5 arranged in a line and facing each other when folding the sunscreen may be broken when they are applied with a sudden outside shock. This makes the sunscreen short-lived.